Confessions of a grey-headed reporter

Monthly Archives: September 2009

“Be creative. We don’t want you to just stand there during your live shot. Do something. Get involved in the story.” If you earn a wage as a field hand in the local TV news, you’ve heard it. You’ve probably heard it uttered by somebody who covers news by staying indoors all day in a building surrounded by satellite dishes. You’ve probably rolled your eyes after hearing it. And you’ve done it anyway.

After you’ve done it, you may have even high-fived your photog. Because a creative live shot always beats a live shot standing stock-still in front of a dark building. You might even grudgingly acknowledge that the desk-bound producer was right in demanding it.

Ross Cavitt, WSB

Ross Cavitt probably didn’t high five his photog after his 6pm live shot Tuesday in Cobb County, where residents are recovering from last week’s flooding. Cavitt is the kind of guy who doesn’t need to be cajoled into doing something creative on-camera. He does it because it helps tell the story.

Cavitt produced a story on WSB about the crushing effects of the flood and the debris it left behind.

Dumpsters and TV reporters have had a historically troubled relationship. When they get together, rarely does anything good come of it. Occasionally, you’ll see a TV reporter trying to parlay a story out of the contents of a dumpster — typically, something toxic or sensitive. In so doing, the viewer waits breathlessly for the reporter to enter the dumpster, the reporter’s dignity instantly running for the exit.

But Cavitt’s too cool for such stuff. Cavitt doesn’t mind getting dirty, but you’ll never find him inside a dumpster. Likewise, Cavitt would never sit on the edge of a dumpster filled with the skanky detritus of a restaurant or a garden-variety apartment complex.

Cavitt’s dumpster was filled with the torn-up remains of the homes of flood victims. This was clean, beloved material until the water rose and soaked it. By the simple act of sitting on the edge of the dumpster, Cavitt symbolically embraced its contents, and the story.

This was no easy feat. Cavitt kept his dignity intact during a dumpster live shot. He gave the producers something creative. He didn’t pirouette. He didn’t even move, really. Yet he did something I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen before on TV. Grade: A

Adam Murphy probably has many loyal friends. No doubt, they love his Restaurant Report Card stories on WGCL. They follow his regular appearances on the pop radio station known as Q100, wherein Murphy talks (we presume) about the failings of restaurants, as well as other exposés in the “Action Adam” portfolio.

They probably love his hometown credibility; the fact that he grew up in the Atlanta suburbs and metriculated at the University of Georgia.

But of unquestionably greater importance, they undoubtedly love the fact that he’s in the running for the title of Nicest Man on Earth.

I have no idea what that would be like. But I’m learning what it’s like to be killed with kindness. If you learn that I’ve died unexpectedly hyperglycemic, my corpse wearing a silly embarrassed half-smile on its slightly reddened face, I would suggest a tough question or two for Mr. Murphy.

Murphy would have every reason to be unkind to me. Close followers of this blog would know the reason. During the time when I produced critiques of Atlanta TV stories, Murphy provided an abundance of material. I’m not gonna say the critiques were harsh. I will say that some of them lacked a certain amount of sugarcoating.

So, of course: Upon my return to the news biz, it turns out Murphy was the first competitor I ran into while encircling a newsmaker with microphones during a breaking story.

Murphy was – so – damned – nice.

I also encountered Murphy at a meeting of bloggers at WGCL last spring. Murphy stayed ’til the end. We spoke afterward. He was – so – damned – nice.

He was gracious. He was generous. He said he was familiar with the LAF critiques, yet praised the blog and the spirit behind it. He was also familiar with some of the specifics of my work in TV news. Murphy is one of those young adults who “grew up watching” yours truly on the TV, always a mixed blessing. He was very flattering.

Adam Murphy’s parents raised him right, their devotion to local TV news notwithstanding.

So I come now not to bury Adam Murphy, but to praise him. You’re a class act, kid. I’m proud to know you.

Maybe I can learn something from you. Like, how to properly pose for a photo.

Postscript- I hear you asking: What’s with the “media area” sign? It’s a creation of the Atlanta Watershed Management Department. Spokeswoman Janet Ward says the department had it custom-made after a wayward TV photographer nearly fell into a trench at a construction site.

A: Unless my name is Jenna Bush Hager, nobody writes stories for me. I write them myself. This answer often surprises the questioner, until it’s explained: “That’s why so many TV stories are so poorly written.”

Photo by Richard Crabbe, photog / cryptographer, who turned the notes below into a TV story.

I would guess that I’ve written a majority of my TV stories on my laptop. My laptop is pictured to the left. It’s a yellow pad of paper. It typically sits in my lap while I work in the back of a live truck. At the end of the shoot, I view the day’s video. On the laptop, I make notes from the video.

Based on those notes, I write a script in longhand on the laptop (see below).

Frequently, a photographer must decipher the material produced on the laptop and use it to guide video editing decisions. The editor uses another laptop in the truck, the one that’s next to my right knee that’s hard-wired and chip-driven. It has Avid editing software. Unlike my laptop, that laptop is bolted into the truck.

Below, you’ll find video of the story produced during this particular shoot. Below that, you’ll find the product of my laptop. Feel free to try to follow along. (The notes don’t include the anchor intro or live shot ad libs.)

While you’re doing that, I’ll be applying a bit of blush.

Update: I’ve had to remove embedded video from WXIA, which was causing LAF to temporarily freeze up. You can still play along by dragging the handwritten script to your desktop. Open the desktop file, then click on my mug below. That will take you to the story on 11alive.com. Teams of engineers are allegedly trying to solve the embedded video problem as we speak. Ugh.

When weather gets rough, it’s news. Sure, a downed tree is sometimes overblown. But severe weather deserves blowout treatment. Problem is, weather makes logistics rough. The story may be good, but it may also be impossible to get on the air.

The result may be a classic crapshoot. Stay put in the rough weather, and you may be able to deliver compelling live coverage. But the weather could prevent you from getting it on TV at all.

Sunday night, photog John Duffy and I found ourselves in an epic rainstorm. We were in Paulding County. It poured for three straight hours. Paulding County had already had some flooding issues. This rain wasn’t helping.

We shot some minor flooding and did a quick live shot at 6.

Then we got lucky. We stopped at a restaurant to ask the manager about the absence of business over the previous rain-soaked week. As we shot, rain started to seep into the restaurant from the parking lot. So began the flooding that socked Georgia for the next two days.

It was 8pm. The thunderstorm raged. With its 40 foot mast, our microwave truck couldn’t deliver a live shot under those circumstances. We had a 10pm deadline.

Should we stay? The story was just beginning to develop. We could continue to shoot. If the storms broke, we’d be able to raise the mast and pop up a shot.

But if the storms didn’t break, we’d be doing phoners. Nobody wanted that. So we left Paulding County at 8:15pm.

En route back to WXIA, we drove up to a flooded spot on US 278. There was a civilian car and a sheriff’s cruiser stuck in the water. We shot it and talked to a cop. It was a second stroke of luck.

As we drove back, Duffy said: “So– you wanted to get back into TV, eh?” He’d said it about a half dozen times during the shift. Duffy’s a laugh riot.

When I offered to fetch the truck (a gesture to keep the gear somewhat dry), he shot my mad sprint.

We arrived in the newsroom, soaked, at 9:30 and got the pictures and story on WATL’s 10pm newscast. The rain hadn’t let up.

The Gorilla Ball is Saturday. The event is a competition among Atlanta TV stations to see which can produce the most entertaining blooper reel. The reels are always worthy viewing. CNN typically enlivens the event by providing a blooper reel, though CNN is ineligible for the Otto Focus Award, the plastic trophy handed over to the station judged to have the winning reel.

There are a few somewhat interesting facets to this year’s Gorilla Ball. The first: It appears WGCL is declining to participate, despite its production of excellent blooper reels in past years. The reason is unclear. (If I’m wrong, please feel free to correct me.)

Second: Because there was no Gorilla Ball in 2008, this year’s reels should be better-than-average because of the backlog of material.

Third: The Atlanta Press Club was apparently desperate enough for an emcee that it asked yours truly to co-host. I accepted. The good news is that I’m co-hosting with Tom Regan. I’ve golfed and had adult beverages with Regan. I’ve also gotten my ass kicked on stories by Regan, an excellent reporter at WSB. We know each other well.

I’ve also praised and abused Regan on this site. I now look forward to doing so in person.

Started by individuals employed by Atlanta TV stations in the early 1980s — when such folk drank and abused substances with reckless abandon — the Gorilla Ball began as a raucous, off-the-record party (the first one I attended was at the Limelight). It got some stability when the Atlanta Press Club began sponsoring it. It also became tamer. As an old guy, I’m quite OK with that.

WAGA has been on a roll, winning the last several Otto Focus awards. Editor Larry Winokur isn’t obsessive about gathering material for it, but he misses very little — especially when Good Day Atlanta erupts into something unexpected. GDA typically dominates the WAGA reel. The CNN reel is always entertaining because it includes off-air audio from the control room. (“Camera two! Why are you doing a 360 when you’re supposed to be on a closeup? Holy f@#!”)

The Gorilla Ball is at Zoo Atlanta at 6:30pm Saturday. You can join the APC and pay ten bucks for admission (but you have to do so by noon today. It’s $15 at the door). Non-members pay more. Buy advance tickets here.

Thank goodness there are so many caring people who love TV. Without them, the denizens of newsrooms across America would surely wither and die.

4pm Tuesday

Tuesday was an excellent example. As newsroom staff at WXIA were beginning to collapse from starvation — deprived, as they were, of nutrition due to their extraordinary hard work and their inability to spend even a moment away from their desks — salvation came in the form of a cake.

Actually, it was two cakes. One of them, the carrot cake, provided nutritious vegetable fiber and Vitamins A and C. The C vitamin was an especially timely addition to the newsroom diet, as a scurvy outbreak appeared imminent.

Likewise, the chocolate-on-chocolate cake delivered vitamins A and E, and minerals like potassium, zinc and paramecium. More importantly, cocoa has phenylethylamine, which is a natural anti-depressant. The staff at WXIA are extraordinarily well-adjusted and lack the suicidal tendencies often found in other newsrooms. This may be attributable to the regular appearances of chocolate cakes, cookies and candies on the table adjacent to the assignment desk.

6pm Tuesday

Sadly, the field crews tend to have only scattershot access to these life-sustaining newsroom deliveries. However, their exposure to regular sunlight enhances their vitamin D intake, and wards off depressive bouts of Seasonal Affective Disorder. And their mental toughness is enhanced by regular exposure to crime scenes and slippery public information officers.

We heard that a place called the Marietta Diner provided these two nutritious confections. Perhaps the bakers there believed they were merely providing a sweet gratuity for folks who may or may not deliver a bit of media buzz for their business.